1. Field
Cardiovascular infusion catheters.
2. Background
It is increasingly important that a physician or surgeon delivering substances, such as a treatment agent or drug, is able to efficiently and accurately locate the desired target tissue for effective delivery of the substance. This is particularly true when the concentration of the substance required at the target site cannot be safely or effectively achieved by introduction of the substance to a location remote from the target site. Moreover, the physician may only want to treat the diseased portion of an organ or tissue and avoid treating any healthy portions.
Such localized treatment is desired not only for substance delivery but is necessary for other treatments, such as myocardial revascularization. Myocardial revascularization is a procedure in which “holes” are formed in ischemic ventricular tissue to increase blood flow to the treated area. It is thought that the tissue damage (e.g., holes) encourages growth of blood vessels in the treated area. Thus, similar to substance delivery, myocardial revascularization is a procedure that is preferably performed only on specific areas that require treatment.
For example, to achieve localized treatment of tissue, such as tissue in a heart, physicians and surgeons can use catheters and occlusion devices. Specifically, cardiovascular guide catheters are generally percutaneous devices used to advance through a vasculature of a patient to a region of interest and are devices through which another catheter or device may be inserted. Infusion or delivery catheters are generally catheters used to deliver or infuse a treatment agent to a region of interest in a vasculature of a patient and typically may be inserted through another catheter (e.g., a guide catheter). Moreover, occlusion devices, such as balloons, may be attached to a guide catheter or infusion catheter to occlude a region of interest in a vasculature. Guidewires are generally devices used to guide catheters through a vasculature of a patient to a region of interest and typically may be inserted through another catheter (e.g., an introducer and/or a guide catheter).